Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister of the Housing Corporation. I want to ask the Minister, in terms of the Housing Corporation, in terms of the policies and the programs that the Minister is responsible for, I want to ask him in terms of how do we help a lady like this that is in a bad situation in terms of her house in regard to the conditions she lives in in Fort Good Hope.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, without having the name of this constituent, and if the Member would provide that, then I would commit to the Member that we’ll follow up with it and see if there’s anything that we can do. Pretty well all of our programs are application-based, so there’s that process that we need to go through too. But if the Member is willing to provide me with the name and the details, then I can commit to him we’ll follow up with it. Thank you.
I appreciate the gesture from the Minister in terms of this specific person. Now I want to ask, in terms of the administration and the flexibility of this program, he’s supposed to be simplifying these programs, the government and the Housing Corporation administration. Does the Corporation have an appeal process in place where if there’s an application that does get rejected, that there can be an appeal process to a body rather than just to the Housing Corporation?
Mr. Speaker, at this particular moment there is no official appeals process in place. However, we are putting the work together to come up with an official appeals process and our intent is to have that in place by the next program application cycle. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, in regard to the next program cycle, in between now and the next program cycle, I mean, this is only one of many concerns I have from the region. And certainly I will probably ask the Minister again, is there an interim appeal process or do we just go to the process that we’re doing now, MLAs coming and seeing the Ministers?
Mr. Speaker, going to the MLAs and Ministers should be a last resort. However, without an appeals process in place, we’re seeing a lot of that and we’re hoping to get away with that. If this could be dealt with at the district level, that would be our preference. They would be able to speak to the district director and make an appeal to them and see what comes out of that. Hopefully, by the time we go through the next application cycle we’ll have fewer and fewer appeals being made to the Ministerial and MLA level.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in terms of the process between now and the next application cycle, in terms of going to the district, is it also possible that the applicants could go to the local housing authority boards in terms of working out some type of an appeal process? I know that’s something that could be considered rather than to the district office. Would the Minister look at something in the interim?
Mr. Speaker, these are the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation programs so we stay away from using the LHOs. They have their own process that they have to deal with as far as rentals go. So as of right now there are, basically, a couple of options: they could speak to the district manager and then, as we’ve seen in many cases, a lot of them are speaking to the MLAs and that’s being relayed to the Minister. We do try and follow up with all the inquiries we get and see in each particular case what the situation was, what was the reason it was turned down. Until we get the new official appeals process in place, right now these are their only two options. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Transportation. I would like to follow up on my statement with regards to my take on the bridge. I have some questions for the Minister relative to the monitoring of the project by the GNWT. Since the concession agreement was signed, from the time the concession agreement was signed until the end of last summer when I believe the government took a greater interest in the management of the project, I would like to know from the Minister what kind of monitoring of the Deh Cho Bridge Project and of the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation was undertaken or was being done by this government. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A project of this nature requires very strict scrutiny by all people involved. There is also the Canadian Bridge Code that has to be followed. We had people from the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation that provided oversight and inspections. We had also independent engineers that provided oversight. We had our own people that were on the ground and providing checks and balances. We also, for the first year, had a team of people that worked together to review all issues and all documentation that were coming forward. We had a fairly strict oversight and inspection process on this project. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the Minister for the answer. I guess it begs the question, then, if we did have that kind of fairly large involvement in the project, if we were doing that kind of monitoring, it is no secret that this project has run into difficulties. We had problems with the contractor. We have had problems with the corporation and their management of the project. Why then did we have such great difficulties? Why are we in the situation we are in at this point? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, yes, the Member has laid out a number of issues that we have been challenged with. The design was, of course, one issue that we had to wrestle with. We had a contractor that had to be replaced. We also had a developer that had fairly limited capacity. Those are issues that we tried, for the most part, over the last while, to improve with adding resources. We have changed budgets. We have added more people that we thought we could lend to this project. We also brought in different firms that would work with the different areas in terms of enhancing this project. We felt that we made some significant changes over the first year. The second year went fairly smoothly. We had one big issue, of course, with one of the piers. Pier three had a bad pour and had to be redone. Things seemed to be changing. I thought we were around the corner with putting a new plan in place, a new design, a new contractor. That is where we are at right now. Of course, given that we are going to add a year or two, that adds to the interest. It also requires us to make the payments on what the lenders are going to need for their first year’s payment on the debt. There are a number of things that are out there that are adding to the project and the cost of redesign is something that was expected to lead into further significant savings. However, it did allow us to have some savings but not enough to cover what it costs to add a year to the construction terms. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the Minister for his response. I mentioned in my statement that I think that it is necessary at this point and I have to give credit to my colleague Mr. Bromley, because he was the one that first raised this in committee a while ago, but we need to have an audit to know how we got to this current situation that we are in, to determine what actual costs are, whether it is actually going to be $181 million or if all the hidden costs add up to several more million. I would like to ask the Minister if he will commit in this House to an audit of the project from its inception until to date. We need to know where we are at right now. Will he do that audit to determine how we got where we are? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, given the level of discussion in the House over the last while for the life of this project, I am not sure if the Member would be satisfied with us doing an audit on ourselves. That may be something that we need to talk further. The Auditor General has been involved and has looked at components of this project. I am assuming that the Member is talking about a full-blown audit of this project. I think that would have to come at the direction of this House or at least by the Finance Minister. It is not something I can commit to. But if the Member is satisfied, we certainly can, at the conclusion of this project, do a review of everything that has transpired, including all the numbers that have been out there in terms of budgets and actual spending. I can commit to that if that is what the Member is looking for. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I guess to clarify, I am looking for an operational audit and also a financial audit. I think, at this point, what I am looking for, and I think some other Members are as well, is to know how much we spent to date, how much we intend to spend to complete this project, because I think there are a lot of hidden costs which aren’t out there. I guess, at this point, I would say yes, I would like a full-blown operational and financial audit when the project is done, but within the near term I would like to see a compilation of all the costs that we have incurred to date. I wonder if the Minister can commit to that. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we wouldn’t want any Member to assume we have hidden costs. We do have a tracking of all our expenditures. We could provide that information. We would have to see how far along it is in terms of presentation. We could also provide the breakout of what is being planned for the dollars that we are going to be requesting through the supplementary appropriation. I have no problem to commit to that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to ask the Minister of Housing if there are some questions on the 2001 Housing Survey that was released. He did mention in his Member’s statement last week, too, and concurred with me that the core needs survey was definitely increased in the Nahendeh riding. Just in those terms there, Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister, given the numbers of that survey, what is his strategy going forward, most particularly in decreasing the numbers in the Nahendeh riding? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Through all the investments that we are making, we had hoped to see some of the numbers coming down. We are assuming that the next one that we do, the numbers will definitely come down. I can advise the Member that the numbers on the survey that was just completed will go a long way in determining our infrastructure budget for the 2011-12 fiscal year. We have already dealt with the 2010-11, so the 2011-12 budget will be determined a lot by the community needs survey figures. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I understand there are some investments already in the Nahendeh -- I have six communities -- that may alleviate some of these numbers. I think the survey is completed every three or four years. Is there a way for the Housing Minister to do an interim assessment to track and see how our core needs is in the Nahendeh riding? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the needs survey is done every five years, but we have had a significant investment in the last three years. It runs out after next year, so we are looking at doing a kind of an interim survey at the time to see how much we have affected the survey numbers. I do believe that once we do this two-year cycle the numbers will be down quite a bit.
I certainly would like to see the Minister commit that there is a new survey or at least a mini survey for the Nahendeh riding that can be done this coming fiscal year. The numbers are true. We have huge overcrowding issues, we have lots of old houses that need retrofit and/or replacement.
We have significant investment in the Nahendeh riding for 2009-2010. Some of those projects are just being completed. There’s approximately $10 million being invested in the Nahendeh riding and then when we go to the 2010-2011 budget there’s an additional $5.2 million being invested into housing. That’s actually one of the lower investments across the Northwest Territories, but we’re believing that will go a long way towards addressing some of the Member’s concerns about adequate housing in Nahendeh. I think this will go a long way in determining and improving the condition and having more units on the ground in Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the Minister for quoting me some of those millions of dollars of investments in the Nahendeh riding. I think the key thing is that I’m not too sure why the core needs numbers remain high. I think one of the things we’ll have to do in the interim this coming fiscal year is to do another survey for the Nahendeh number. I know that lots of units are indeed coming up, but I’d like to see progress in the Nahendeh riding and not the numbers going the other way.
There are a few things that are taken into account when they’re doing the community needs survey. There is the suitability and adequacy, and I think through the major M and I program we’re taking steps to address that. There’s a huge investment in M and I throughout the Northwest Territories, not just in the Nahendeh riding. There’s also the affordability. So these are all factors that are taken into consideration. After we’re done with this major investment that we’ve had for the last two or three years we should go back and do, as the Member’s said, a bit of a mini survey to see how it’s addressed the need in the communities. We’re quite confident the numbers will change.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Transportation today and it is not about the bridge.
I’m not fond of flying. Something about flying through the air, being hurtled through the air at 500 miles an hour in a culvert with a cone on the front doesn’t really make sense to me. But I had occasion to hear a radio interview not so many months ago and something caught my attention that kind of caused me some concern. I’ve been mulling it over. I think the young man that was being interviewed said that he had a problem with a crack-cocaine addiction and that he had been working as an aircraft maintenance engineer for a local aviation firm, and that he had decided on his own volition to quit his job doing that because he felt that it could be putting the travelling public at risk because he was high on crack while he was at work. It led me to wonder if the government, our government, if Transport Canada or some legislating body has responsibility for enforcing or dictating some kind of drug testing for people who are in those types of careers.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member paints a picture that would make anybody nervous, especially flying through the air at 500 miles an hour in a culvert with a cone on it. I’m not totally sure if there is any formal testing in the area of drugs. We are aware that the federal government, who has the responsibility in this area, does have rules related to alcohol and that there is medical testing that has to be done on a regular basis, but I think that’s only every so many years. I could point out, though, that most aircraft companies have built into their safety management systems drug testing, but I would have to follow up with the federal government to see if there’s any intention or if there’s any formal testing, for that matter.
It’s definitely not my intention to cast in any negative light any private carriers or small companies, but we do hear and have heard debate and controversy over the years about people, whether it was a violation of their rights to have mandatory drug testing in certain areas. You hear about in the oilpatch. I certainly know that large companies have their own in-house policies on drug testing and it’s particularly stringent, I believe, on anybody that’s involved in the transportation industry, and certainly for pilots, as the Minister says. I know there are medical tests and tests that are performed on pilots. It’s the folks that are in the maintenance shops that are working on the maintenance of aircraft that I’m concerned about. I suppose this could carry over to anybody that’s working on equipment that’s used for public transportation. I would like to ask the Minister if he could suggest if Transport Canada does not have such policies or rules, if it is within the mandate of this government to legislate or regulate industry in this regard.
Transport Canada does have rules related to alcohol consumption and aircraft operations that pilots must comply with. Whether or not we can also apply rules from the level of the territorial government or Department of Transportation NWT would be something I’d have to explore and see if there’s any mechanism that we could put in place that would give comfort to the Members of this House and to the general public that there is some screening or involvement that the pilots are not... I take it it’s more than just pilots in this case, but I would have to look at it. I’d have to talk to somebody who’s involved in the safety aspect.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about some concerns of a couple of the schools in my riding. They are quite the gems in our educational system. They represent great culture and certainly diversity in our community and I think they do very well.
As I highlighted, the schools have not had complete updating. As I mentioned about Sissons, it’s been 35 years the school has been in our school system and the school has not been updated in a fair way; acknowledging outside of that, of course, the boiler and the paint. Mildred Hall has been 45 years in the education system and other than half the upgrade that it rightly deserved in 2005. My question to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment is: what would it take to get these two schools properly back into the capital planning process to make sure that these necessary updates and renovations get done in a complete and reasonable way?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. These two particular schools will be part of the educational review that’s underway currently. That report will be done in the spring of this year. Based on the outcome of that, we’re going to highlight the most critical needs, the most emergency requirements, such as other regions’ most critical needs as well. Those two schools will be part of the discussion as we move forward after the spring.
Does this educational review take into account the significant amount of deferred maintenance on these two schools that is outstanding to date?
We have to keep in mind that there have been renovations and major retrofit that has happened in Mildred Hall in 2005. So that will have to be taken into consideration as well. There are other schools that have not been upgraded due to various circumstances. So those are the discussions that we need to have going forward on capital projects for this fall. So, Mr. Speaker, the educational review will consist of the space of the schools and also the age and enrolment is a big factor as well. Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that answer from the Minister. Is the Minister aware that J.H. Sissons is the priority of YK No. 1 to be updated and the fact that it needs things like a fire alarm panel update? It has many combustible materials that need to be addressed and it turns into a bit of a health and safety problem. Of course, I’m not trying to alert the fire marshal, but the reality is the school has a lot of upgrades that need to be done. Mr. Speaker, are these types of things that will help make it on top of the priority list, from his point of view? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, these schools and all schools are a priority to my department. There are no immediate health or safety issues with J.H. Sissons. So those are the areas that we are looking at; the most critical needs, the emergence of it, that we’re going to highlight in the coming months. Mr. Speaker, yes, we’re going to compile all that information and we’re going to highlight the most critical needs of the schools. Mahsi.
